Ben Shapiro slams NY Times coverage of Wisconsin riots: 'Fires don't break out on their own'

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro mocked The New York Times Tuesday over their coverage of the unrest in Wisconsin, including one article describing "peaceful marches" that "gave way to fires and destruction."

"Oh, they just gave way, did they? Fascinating!" "The Ben Shapiro Show" host told listeners. "So if the anti-lockdown protests had devolved into burning down capitol buildings, would they have just 'given way?' Or would it have been that the protesters turned out to be rioters and looters?" he asked.

Multiple fires were reported across Kenosha County late Monday night following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

A car dealership that was torched during the first night of rioting Sunday was targeted again late Monday, along with a furniture store and a storefront church, according to social media and local reports.

Shapiro argued that the Times vastly mischaracterized the violence and vandalism in an article headlined "Fires In Kenosha Reflect Anger After Police Shooting of Jacob Blake."

"Fires in Kenosha reflect anger ... the fires reflected the anger, not that people were angry and so they randomly burned down business and burned down a church with a giant sign that said 'Black Lives Matter' in front ... ," Shapiro said. "The fires themselves reflected anger! Incredible."

The Times promoted the story on its main Twitter page, writing, "Peaceful marches in Kenosha, Wisconsin, against the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black resident, gave way to fires and destruction."

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"Oh, did it prompt the fires?" Shapiro asked. "Weird, because it seems like fires don't break out on their own. It seems like it prompted a bunch of violent maniacs to go out and do a bunch of violent maniacal things ... but the system is always to blame for bad things happening.

"In the far-left way of thinking, the angrier you are at the system, the more the system is to blame, therefore, your anger is always justified ... which of course is an outright lie," he continued.

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"We've moved from ... a view that racism is a barrier to people making free decisions, to people making free and bad decisions is a result of racism," Shapiro said. "That's the way all these headlines are phrased from the New York Times."

Fox News' Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.